Assurances of Objectivity

Kent Greenawalt, Law and Objectivity. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. Pp. x, 288. $45.00. Is law objective?

The question is oddly unsatisfactory-Objective in what sense? Objective compared with what?-and one is naturally curious to know why it is being asked. The best way to approach Kent Greenawalt's latest book is to begin with the accusations made against traditional legal reasoning by members of the Critical Legal Studies (CLS) movement. Legal reasoning has been called "indeterminate and contradictory" by CLS scholars: it "cannot resolve questions in an 'objective' manner," for it is "not a method or process that leads reasonable, competent and fair-minded people to particular results in particular cases."